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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24754705">SteamWorld Oneshot</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/One_lovely_little_idiot/pseuds/One_lovely_little_idiot'>One_lovely_little_idiot</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SteamWorld Dig (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:46:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,331</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24754705</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/One_lovely_little_idiot/pseuds/One_lovely_little_idiot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dorothy and Fen take a small break to talk after the former had just returned from Vectron.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dorothy McCrank &amp; Fen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>SteamWorld Oneshot</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The game’s ending stood on my neck with steampunk themed Louboutins and made me sob. ANYWAY here’s a oneshot </p><p>Also it’s only rated T because I said the piss word at one point. It felt right.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Usually Fen would be the one to complain to Dot about how she never stopped moving. It was always go to this location, investigate this murder temple, mine here, open this tunnel, make money.</span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Fen was the ever so slightly more patient one of the two usually, preferring to savour each sad little shiner and explosive barrel. Dot was naturally an all-action bot and took little time to rest, always with a goal to do and location to be. She usually never took time to simply stop and savour </span> <span class="s2">anything.</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Yet here Dot was, sitting with her back resting against the temple wall, equipment spread before her. The newest addition, a jetpack, she’d obtained after returning from Vectron. Despite Fen thinking it was frankly cool as hell and filled with a lot of potential (think of the headbutting power), Dot didn’t give a scrap of attention to it. To her it was another casual upgrade, an everyday happening.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Fen couldn’t help groaning. “Come on, we could be doing anything else right now. Do you know how many of those cultists we could be blowing up?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Apart from their impatience, there was also an urgency for Fen. They’d just sensed three other doomsday devices that needed destroying ASAP and Dot was still with no answers about Rusty’s location. Fen would’ve thought she would be more mobile than ever (maybe even annoyingly so) to get back ok course with their quest.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Instead she sat, slouched against the temple wall, not even opening her eyes when she responded. “We’ll leave them be. I’m low on water anyway.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Fen almost couldn’t believe it. The one time they thought it would be more urgent than ever to get back to working, Dorothy decided the best course of action was to sit down and do nothing. “So you’re just not going to do anything? Very productive.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Dot opened one eye to look at Fen. “I’m just resting. No need to get your pixels in a twist.” She answered simply.</span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">“</span><em><span class="s2">You </span> </em> <span class="s1">know how to rest? I haven’t seen you sleep in three days.”</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Dot’s mouth opened and closed several times, each time giving no response. If she had an argument it was never said. “You may be correct.” she ended up admitting.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I think we should head back. You picked up some good ore in there, which we both know what that means.” <br/>
</span>
</p><p class="p1">More Ore= More money = More bomb upgrades = More violence = More joy for Fen. </p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Dot rolled her eyes with a smile. She edged herself further up the wall so that she was sitting up straight, however, she made no effort to stand, and instead flipped her goggles down to cover her eyes. Fen couldn’t tell clearly exactly what her expression was, but her voice sounded tired. “You’ll have to give me a moment... Vectron was pretty intense.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Fen didn’t have to be told. It haunted them sometimes, how they had once existed there without sentience, only lead by base instincts that told them to either attack or possess. They’d never admitted it aloud but that place scared them. They knew as soon as they drifted back there they would lose sentience so easily. Fen would simply be gone. They couldn’t help shivering.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Vectron’s not the most scenic place is it? Probably best that teleporter is broken now.” Fen said.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I wonder how I even got out. I remember running... from a lot of danger and probably death, and then I think I passed out and just appeared back here.” </span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“It probably sensed you were an anomaly and pushed you out.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“It can do that? The whole place looked pretty wrecked to me, never mind sentient.” Dot paused before continuing, “There were a lot of these little spirits as well. They looked like you, except I think a little less sadistically charged.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Nah, they’re just as bad as me. They just pretend to be modest about it to feel superior.” Fen ignored how their siblings were incapable feeling anything. The thought made Fen feel a helplessness they didn’t like.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It was a comfort though, how they weren’t entirely different. Some instincts still lingered from Vectron. One of which was the comfort Fen could find in going inside a machine. First it had been the totem in the Temple of Guidance, then Dorothy’s little furnace.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Fen thought over their time together. Maybe if Fen had waited a moment to hear Dot’s true intent in the Temple then they would have never left the temple. They’d have never gotten the taste of how it felt to not be alone.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">It was nice, Fen decided, having someone who hadn’t only came to them for what Fen could do. They had no real reason to accompany Dot other than they only wanted to now.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Fen found themself talking without really thinking, “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t come back out.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Dot flipped her goggles up momentarily, her pink-tinted eyes resting with curiosity on the sprite.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“The teleporter broke almost immediately after I sent you and I didn’t know if you could come back without it.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Still, Fen had waited for an excruciating hour wondering if Dorothy was still alive, and was prepared to wait for days if they had to.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Dot gave a warm smile. “Sorry to make you worry like that. Neither of us knew it would break like that. In the end though, I’m back here again.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Something within Fen wasn’t letting them rest easy and their mouth kept running. “If I was the one missing, and you didn’t know if I was alive, would you have stayed behind for me?”</span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">The sudden question put a startled expression on Dot. She recovered quickly and said matter-of-factly, “Well yeah, we </span> <span class="s2">are</span> <span class="s1"> friends.”</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The word had an odd feeling to Fen. They didn’t doubt Dot’s genuinity with the term (Fen had learned she could often be too upfront at times) it was just the word sounded unusual to Fen’s ears. They hadn’t heard it often.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Friends,” the sprite repeated slowly. Dot raised an eyebrow in response. “We are f-r-i-e-n-d-s... ew. Sounds mushy.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Dot cracked a smile, partially stopping herself from laughing and partially in disbelief. “Do you know what a friend is?” </span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">“Of course I do. I </span> <span class="s2">was</span> <span class="s1"> very popular as a totem actually. All sorts of people loved to see me and declare their undying love for me, or at least until you destroyed my totem.”</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“You were trying to zap me! What else was I supposed to do?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“... let me zap you?”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I let you loiter inside my furnace and convince me to use bombs where I really shouldn’t. I’d say that’s repayment enough.” Fen found themself mentally agreeing, but found it fun getting Dot riled up about something when she was always so neutral.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Even when her little quest to find Rusty had quickly expanded into a much larger plot Fen had saw how Dot had taken it all as her responsibility without question or complaint. The only thing Fen knew that got Dot riled up was questioning her motives, which were always as solid as titanium.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Fen took some pride in that. There could always be some use in knowing how to piss even the most unprovokable people off.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">The steambot stood and picked up her bag, starting to pack away her loot. “Come on, let’s get back to town.”</span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">“So </span> <em> <span class="s2">now </span> </em> <span class="s1">you want to head back. What happened to resting?” Fen asked.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">“</span><span class="s2">That</span><span class="s1"> was</span> <span class="s1">rest.” Dot stated, starting to screw her hookshot back onto her hand.</span></p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">Fen concluded Dot would always be a bot unable to be anything but stubborn, and she will never take an actual break.</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“I know as much about botany as you do about relaxing.” Fen said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you relax a day in your life.”</span>
</p><p class="p1">
  <span class="s1">“Be nice or you’ll lose furnace privileges.” </span>
</p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Fen exagerated a groan, though thankful their lack of mouth hid any smile they would be showing at that moment. “Fine</span> <span class="s2">.</span><span class="s1">” </span></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wrote this on my phone so apologies if there are any grammar mistakes, and also please tell me if I accidentally used he/him for Fen at any point. I only recently learned they are genderless and it’s not fully sunk in yet</p></blockquote></div></div>
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